Different Stars
by songbirdgirl
Summary: This is a sequel to my story After Journey's End, so if you haven't read that first you probably should. This is rated M for sexual content in the first chapter and probably later chapters too. I will post as often as I can. I do not own the characters, just the plot of this story. Enjoy? Please R&R!
1. Chapter 1

It's amazing how quickly the human mind can change emotion. The Doctor says out of every planet he's been to, he's never met another species that can be so emotional. I was angry with Dad when he sent me off on an errand, and after I realized the Doctor had gotten to come home a week early, I was ecstatic. I called Dad to tell him we wouldn't be coming back to the office, and we set off straight home.

The sky was a rare blue, and there was hardly a cloud in the sky. The windows were down, and the breeze flitted the Doctor's hair around his face. His grin was huge and contagious, the kind of grin that perks up any day. The kind of grin that made my stomach flip. For the first time, his eyes met mine and I felt hope well up, like this could be the start of something new, something _more._ The things I had done with the old Doctor weren't undone; they still were an important part of who I was, but this was the chance for things to go in a direction they never could have if I had stayed in the other universe.

It would have taken me a much shorter time to go straight back than it had taken to get there, but we decided to take the long way since the day was so beautiful. We avoided any touchy subject, such as his departure or the time we spent apart before he was created, so instead he told me stories I had never heard him tell before. After a time I was so involved I didn't realize where we were. I had made a wrong turn and almost left the city, and we were headed down a road that looked a little over-grown and less used, but it was quiet and pretty so I followed it. After awhile we came to a run down house with a nearby lake. Suddenly, I was hit with a wave a deja vu, and, unable to focus on anything else, was forced to pull over.

I explained what was going on to the Doctor, who started rambling on about time travel and deja vu, but it was hitting me in this rippling way that made paying attention to his words impossible. After a moment, it passed. I thought the area was a beautiful one, and said as much, so we searched the boot and found a blanket. We trecked down to the small lake and spread it out. The house and car were still barely in view, and there were woods nearby. We could hear birds and bugs but nothing in the way of traffic. We laid back on the blanket, he took my hand, and continued his stories. He told me about his life before the war, spoke of friends and places I had never heard of before. The afternoon was warm, so I pulled my shirt up to let the sun tickle my midriff.

Eventually, I began to focus less on his words, and more on his fingers tracing patterns around my belly button. His fingers started peaking further under the bottom of my shirt and soon he lost track of what he was saying as well. He took of his shirt and I walked my fingers down his back, feeling every ridge in his backbone. I felt his shiver, and then all I could feel was his fingertips under the top of my jeans. His face was close to mine, and I reached out to delineate the edge of his ear with my tongue and his shudder was the end of taking our time.

Our clothes didn't come off slowly like our first time together. We were sober but more certain and less cautious and more frantic, and his mouth was on mine and my arms were around him and my legs were around him and then he was _in_, and we were one, under trees with only the birds and the lonely windows of an abandoned house to see. I could feel the pounding of his single heart like it was my own, and his skin smelled warm like sunlight and it didn't last long, but that didn't make it any less perfect. And we dressed and I laid my head on his chest and he put his arm around me and stroked my hair and I fell asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

When I woke, I had one of those strange moments where it was light when you fell alseep, but you wake to find it dark. I was also slightly confused about where I was and why I was outside, but the memory flooded back quickly. I turned my head to find the Doctor watching me.

"You looked so peaceful, I hated to wake you."

"Mmm... I didn't realize how tired I was, but I haven't been sleeping very well while you've been gone."

"Why is that?"

"I've been having really vivid dreams. They make me restless, and all the tossing and turning thoughout the night makes me wake feeling like I've hardly slept."

"Hm. How did you sleep with me here?"

"Really well. I don't think I had any dreams at all."

"Actually, dreaming is a side effect of conversion of short term memory into long term memory storage, which is done during each sleep cycle with more efficacy so technically, you dream every sleep cycle, so it's not if you _dream_ or not, but if you _remember_ your dream or not, Rose Tyler," he finished with a deep breath and a grin.

He said it all so fast I couldn't help but laugh. He leaned down and cut it off with a kiss that I got a little more caught up in than I meant to, but soon enough I realized just how dark it was and we gathered up our things and headed back to the car. I was putting the blanket back in the boot, but when I looked up, he was off a ways.

"What are you doing?"

"Come over here and look!"

He was looking through a dirty window into the little house that had kept watch over our afternoon. I peered in as well. The whole house was a little dirty and sad, like it had stood empty for too long. But under the neglect, it was a nice little house. It had a run down fence, and an area that was at one time a garden, before it was left to go wild. As we circled around the place, we discovered a chimney, and that the whole place had pretty lattice windows. There were two floors, and the whole thing was built with pretty stones. Underneath the dirt and disrepair, it was actually quite charming.

"You know, it wouldn't take that much to get it into shape," the Doctor said. "The chimney is still solid, and the foundation looks good as well."

I looked at him, surprised. "Since when do you know about houses?"

"I know all kinds of things Rose Tyler."

That grin.

"I just remember a time when you couldn't imagine living in a house is all."

"And I remember a time when I thought I was going to have to live without you. What about this house?"

He caught me off gaurd. I blinked. And again. And a third time.

"This...house?"

"Yep. This house. Do you like it?"

"Well, yeah, but... to live in?"

"Yes. That's what houses are for, aren't they?"

"Well, yeah. But I don't have money for a house."

"I have money. On that card Pete gave me? Accounts. Lots, apparently."

I looked back at the house. Something stirred inside me.

"Yes."

"Are you sure?"

"Ask me again."

"Do you want to live in this house with me?"

"Yes!"


End file.
